234 Physical Geography of 



The Mackenzie plains are, with the exception of the Canterbury 

 plains, the largest in the two provinces under review. However, 

 owing to their great altitude, sloping from 3000 feet to about 1300 feet 

 above the sea level, the lower portion only is available for agricultural 

 purposes. Great have been the changes which took place before this 

 portion of the country could assume its present configuration. The 

 upper portion of these plains is formed by morainic accumulations 

 forming large ridges running parallel to the course of the rivers above 

 the lakes, and afterwards encircling the latter to a breadth of several 

 miles. Below them, alluvial beds deposited by the huge torrents 

 issuing from the glaciers, form shallow fans into which the rivers, as 

 they laid their beds lower, have excavated a series of terraces on both 

 sides. Ice-worn hills and small ranges rise here and there amongst the 

 morainic and fluviatile beds, often with enormous erratic blocks on their 

 summits and slopes. I wish finally, (omitting a number of smaller 

 plains or basins on the eastern side), to allude to the Waikari-Hurunui 

 plains which, with the "Waiau-ua plains, form a large basin about thirty 

 miles long and six miles broad. They are also the former bed of a 

 large inland lake, in course of time, filled up by alluvial deposits brought 

 into it by a number of rivers, and of which the deltaic deposits (or 

 shingle-fans) can still be traced. Here also, some fine agricultural 

 land is met with. 



In "Westland, along the coast, a fringe of more or less level land is 

 situated, of which the triangular area stretching into the Grey plains 

 across the Arnold river, is the largest and most important. It generally 

 consists of older alluvium in which the richest of the "Westland Gold- 

 fields are situated, and of younger morainic accumulations and alluvium 

 formed by the rivers once issuing from the extended glaciers. It forms a 

 table-land rising gradually to 800 feet, above which a number of hills,, 

 consisting of tertiary strata, rise a few hundred feet more. It is 

 generally densely wooded, so that to prepare it for agricultural or 

 pastoral purposes, a great deal of work will be required. Thus it does 

 not possess the same advantages with which the downs and plains on 

 the eastern side of the Southern Alps are endowed, where in most cases 

 the virgin soil can be ploughed at once without any further preparation. 

 "We have, however, to except some small area north of the Taramakau 

 to Lake Brunner, the so-called Pakihi or Paddock, and a portion of the 

 Hokitika plains, where some good grass land is met with. 



A low alluvial plain stretches from the Tauperikaka, eight miles north 

 of the Eiver Haast, to Jackson's Bay, with a total length of thirty 



